Prevented planting (PP), where the act of planting the seed is either rendered impractical or impossible, can occur for conditions that are either too wet or too dry. Although extremely dry conditions can trigger PP loss claims, far more commonly, prevented planting conditions occur when the farmer's field is too wet to permit entry of the planting equipment. PP from waterlogged fields can cause serious losses for the farmer because crops must be planted within a crop-specific window in order to provide a sufficiently long growth period to achieve a yield prior to fall frost. This system, method, and product deals solely with PP under wet conditions. PP from wet conditions creates an average of hundreds of millions of dollars in crop losses each year across the United States (US), often reaching very high density and nearly total involvement of cultivated fields in the wettest locations.
Crop insurance policies indemnify farmers from losses due to PP. Once a PP loss occurs, the Approved Insurance Provider (AIP) must determine the amount of loss for each claimed field in a process called loss adjusting. Currently, loss adjusters are sent to each field that is impacted, frequently requiring travel and lodging support that, in aggregate, may cost each insurance company many tens of millions of dollars in each affected state in addition to amounts that must be paid out for indemnities. Furthermore, on-the-ground estimation of the size of many disconnected areas within each PP-impacted field is time consuming and often inaccurate for a loss adjuster in the field. There is an urgent need for a system, method, and product to provide automated PP crop loss adjusting that is accurate, robust, and that largely obviates the need for field visits. Accurate, automated, digital methods can save AIPs significant costs for PP loss adjusting. This savings can potentially be passed on to farmers, thereby enhancing the economics of farming while strengthening United States (US) agriculture.